Fishin' In the Dark
by ilovetvalot
Summary: Rossi invites Garcia on a special outing to the woods with him in hopes of alleviating her stress. HUMOR/FRIENDSHIP. Written for the TV Prompt Challenge - Bonus 18 Kidnapped "Gone Fishing"
1. Chapter 1

_**Author's Note: As we all know, the Criminal Minds world is facing a few changes in the new season. In honor of the fantastic character that is Jennifer Jareau and the awesome actress that is AJ Cook, we are announcing our new mini-challenge…The Creative Reasons Challenge! Now is the time to put your creative talents to work and w**__**rite a story depicting the events and/or emotions regarding JJ's character's departure. It can be a drabble, oneshot or multichapter featuring any characters you choose. Maybe you want to show the reaction of whoever you choose to pair her with. Perhaps you want to do a friendship piece depicting her telling her best friend(s). Anything is welcome. For more info, check out our challenge thread on the "Chit Chat on Author's Corner" forum. We want to hear from you.**_

**Fishin' In the Dark**

**Chapter One**

_**Prompt: Kidnapped - "Gone Fishing"**_

She was in hell...or as close to it as she ever wanted to be.

Looking around as she tromped through the bushes after the man that had shown up in her office ten hours ago demanding her presence here tonight, she shivered as she heard an ominous rustling in the woods to their left. In what universe could anyone that knew her have ever assumed that this would be her idea of a good time?

Fishing in the dark? Seriously?

He could have taken her out to dinner like any sane, rational person. Or suggested a movie. Or ordered her to dance around the bullpen naked with a spinning beanie on her multi-colored head. Any of those things would have felt more comfortable than the current predicament in which she found herself immersed.

He'd sworn to her that this would be a therapeutic experience. Cathartic, even.

Her ass! How exactly was lugging a fishing pole two times her height in one hand and a rickety lawn chair under her other arm through tall grass on a hot, humid night like this going to be anybody's idea of a positive experience? Did she look like the sort of woman that enjoyed the great outdoors?

Oh, wait! Correction…the great outdoors in the middle of the freaking wilderness in the dead of the black of night!

Admittedly, she'd been in a funk since their not-quite-a-vacation trek through the Alaskan outback after another in a long line in deranged psychos. She could agree that she'd not been her eternally perky self for a few weeks. But, who would? It wasn't anything that a few dozen gallons of Rocky Road and an unending supply of romantic comedies couldn't combat!

Her temporary morose outlook on life of late certainly hadn't warranted this field trip to hell! Tripping over a loose rock, Penelope used her fishing pole to steady herself, slapping the wooden edge into the uneven ground.

"Careful with my pole," she heard his familiar, but disembodied, voice admonish from in front of her, the pitch black of night precluding her from seeing his smug face. "It's an antique."

Yeah, it was now official. She was gonna fall and break her neck because he insisted the fish bit better in the black of night, and he was worried about his rod! But first, she was gonna kill him and shove his antique lifeless corpse in the godforsaken lake for those precious fish of his to devour with their kazillion little piranha teeth! Fishing line had more than one purpose, didn't it?

Oh this night was turning out to be cathartic, all right. It was going to turn her from the temporarily depressed technical analyst she was into one of the possessed whackadoodles that they chased on a regular basis.

And it was all his fault!

Damn David Rossi's soul to the bowels of hell!

* * *

_**A/N 2 - I'm aware this chapter is shorter than my usual. Please know that this is a prologue for lack of a better word. The next will be longer. I don't foresee this story going beyond three to four chapters. Please let us know your thoughts. We love hearing from you!**_


	2. Chapter 2

**Fishin' in the Dark**

**Chapter Two**

**Prompt: Kidnapped - "Gone Fishing"**

David Rossi was well aware that he very well might be living on borrowed time. But he'd had to do something, hadn't he? In the last several weeks, their naturally enthusiastic technical analyst had literally faded and withered before the team's collective eyes. More unexpected than her change in disposition, however, was his response to it. He'd found himself strangely concerned.

And David Rossi did not **do** concerned well.

It wasn't that he didn't worry about his fellow teammates. He did. And he'd always do whatever he could to have their backs. But Penelope Garcia's withdrawal from them all was something that had remarkably managed to unsettle him.

So, being the dominant personality that he was, he did what he always did in those rare situations where he found himself caring about a potential outcome. He took control.

Morgan had warned him that she'd be resistant to this sort of intervention. Penelope Garcia wasn't what anyone would qualify as an outdoorsy person. Far from it. The unique woman with a heart of gold much preferred her self-made fortresses, be they in her office or at her apartment, both equipped with all forms of technological gadgets and glories. Communing with nature was obviously not a priority in her world. She much preferred cool air conditioned rooms and twenty-four hour instantaneous access to her cyber realm. And being a creature of habit himself, he could respect that.

Just not tonight.

Tonight, he had a mission. And that mission included allowing Garcia an opportunity to finally purge herself of the anger he knew was boiling within her. Even if it required that he sacrifice what had originally been intended to be a most relaxing night of fishing.

Biting his lip to keep himself from chuckling at her incessant grumbling behind him, he instead said dryly, "Garcia, keep talking and you're gonna scare off the fish before we even manage to set up camp."

"Scare the fish?" she echoed incredulously, her teeth clenching again at the very thought. "Look, Agent Rossi," she growled, glaring toward the inky waters of the pond they'd circled three times already, "I don't think it's the fish that ought to feel intimidated." Frowning as they began their fourth lap around the pond, Penelope shifted the lawn chair under her arm. "How many more trips around this hole are we gonna make anyway," she complained.

"We're finding the perfect spot," he replied evenly, edging closer to the water. Listening to her muffled curses as she tripped after him, Dave wisely resisted the laugh bubbling in his throat.

"The perfect spot to do what?" Penelope bit out, skidding to a stop as her companion finally halted.

"To catfish," he replied succinctly. "This is it," he declared, dropping his tackle box to the ground and leaning his pole against it. Glancing back at her as he flipped the light on his battery operated lantern, he ordered, "Well, are you just gonna stand there or are we going to get set up?"

Glowering at the senior profiler as she swatted at the mosquitoes assaulting her face, Pen snapped, "Since I don't know a pole from a lure, I'm pretty sure I'm just gonna stand here!"

"Penelope," Dave replied sternly, "I'm not exactly being overwhelmed by your cooperative attitude. But that's fine," he drawled agreeably, dropping his own lawn chair to the ground and snapping it into place. "The snapping turtles are always looking for a new ankle or two to try out for a late lunch."

Her squeal rent the otherwise silent night air as she immediately dropped the rickety chair and plopped into it. Drawing her feet up to rest on the sagging edge, she looked around wildly as she hissed, "You didn't say a thing about woman-eating savages out here in this godforsaken no-man's land!"

Ducking as she waved her fishing pole erratically in his direction, he reached out and captured the thin wooden pole as it whizzed past his head. "Again, do I need to explain that the pole is for fishing and not for decapitating me?" Rossi chided, holding tightly to the thin end as he caught the glint of fear flashing in her eyes.

Making a quick grab for the instrument of torture, Garcia grumbled as she tucked her feet even tighter on the chair. "Oh, I have many far better ideas in store for your imminent demise, my obviously delusional friend. Decapitation would be entirely too quick for my plans."

"You know, I would have expected a free spirit like you to be open to new experiences, Garcia," Rossi remarked casually, sliding his favorite cloth lawn chair into place at the edge of the murky water. "I'm rather disappointed here."

Jaw dropping dramatically as she listened to Rossi's put out voice echoing in the still night, Garcia shook her head dumbly, momentarily at a loss for words. Definitely a rare occurrence in her world. "YOU'RE disappointed?" she finally squealed, swinging her antique pole in a wide arc, causing Dave to duck again, "I'm in the middle of freaking nowhere, Agent Rossi!" Shaking her neon pink glow in the dark iPhone in the air angrily above her head, she yelled, clearly affronted, "Do you understand exactly how far off the beaten path I have to be to LOSE signal with one of these babies! I haven't had one single baby bar for over an HOUR!"

"And who exactly were you deliberating calling, Penelope?" Rossi asked calmly, reaching for the pole she was waving wildly again. "It IS the middle of the night as you've reminded me several times."

Narrowing her eye on the obviously deranged soul (he had to be, after all...he seemed to actually have believed she enjoy this deplorable excursion into the wasteland that was the great outdoors), she snapped, "Actually, I was trying to tweet my current location...somebody needs to know where to look for my body. I'm pretty sure you must have dragged me into your backwoods boondocks to murder me. At least THAT reasoning makes sense to me!"

Sighing deeply at the red headed whirlwind's dramatic interpretation of events, Dave dropped into his chair and raised one eyebrow. "And Hotch says I'M the one with a flair for the dramatic," he grunted as he reached for his tackle box.

If he was lucky, and he could only pray he would be, he might escape this little expedition with all of his important body parts intact.

* * *

_**Author's Note:**_

_**Please forgive our extra long rambling today, but we have a lot to share. First, originally we planned to publish all our stories on Mondays. But after realizing we have ten ongoing works, we decided to split them up. So, we will publish five fics on Sundays and five fics on Mondays for the foreseeable future. As always, we will publish the odd oneshot in between, especially when we have notes to share with our readers regarding our forum.**_

_**For those following Chit Chat on Author's Corner forum, we have several announcements. First, we'd like to announce our interviews with the very talented authors Reidfanatic and ConfettiLeaves. Next, please **__**check out our mini-challenge…The Creative Reasons Challenge! Now is the time to put your creative talents to work and write a story depicting the events and/or emotions regarding JJ's departure. It can be a drabble, oneshot or multi-chapter featuring any characters you choose. For more info, check out our challenge thread on the "Chit Chat on Author's Corner" forum.**_

_**For those of you who want to keep updated on the new threads posted to the forum, you can subscribe by going to the forum page (the link is on my profile page), then clicking "Forum Subscription" in the upper right corner. We have new and exciting discussion threads and interviews, as well as our monthly challenges, planned for the future.**_

_**Again, we want to take this opportunity to thank anyone for reading, reviewing, alerting, and favoriting our stories. We truly appreciate hearing from each one of you.**_

**_And, one more thank you to Kavi Leighanna and Sienna27 for their TV Prompt Challenge. Specifically Bonus 18._**


	3. Chapter 3

_Author's Note: We're excited to announce our Round 3 of our Fanfic Challenge on Chit Chat on Author's Corner forum. The __**Dealer's Choice August Challenge**__ is a great way to stretch your writing muscles! Simply suggest a pairing from the seven main Criminal Minds characters and list three different things to include in the story. (Example: You request Hotch/Emily and your prompts are a starry night, a cashmere blanket and a bottle of Merlot.) Your suggestion will be assigned to another author, and you'll receive a similar suggestion. Your final story must include your assigned pairing and must include at least two of the three prompts you were given in some capacity. Stories can be short or long, romantic or friendship, angst or humor…and anything else in between! Sign ups will continue through August 2, assignments will be given on August 3, and stories are due by August 31! Please visit the forum or shoot us a PM if you are interested in participating. We'd love to have you!_

**Fishin' In the Dark**

**Chapter Three**

"Oh," Penelope seethed, her fingers clenching and unclenching, " you haven't seen dramatic yet. Dramatic is when I take that little pole you're so fond of and go fishin' for your prostrate!"

Biting back a grin, Rossi remained straight faced as he tilted his head, his voice filled with just the right mixture of appreciation and humor, "Kinky."

"Pervert!" Garcia yelled, releasing a frustrated breath as she stomped back and forth. "Okay, Agent Asshat, how long is this little field experience of yours gonna take?" she asked, turning toward him, his face dimly illuminated by the low wattage lantern beside him.

"It'll take as long as it takes," Dave shrugged, calmly baiting his hook, the motion second nature. Glancing toward her, he asked evenly, "You gonna bait your hook or what, Garcia? The fish aren't just gonna jump into your hands and surrender."

Watching in disgust as he pierced a wriggling worm with his hook, she yelped, waving her hands wildly in the air, "Ewww! Gross! What did that worm ever do to you?"

"Not a thing," Dave replied, glancing behind him as he prepared to cast his first line. "He's just an innocent victim of his circumstance in life. It's survival of the fittest out here."

"So let me get this straight. You plan on murdering the worm AND the fish. You're a friggin' animal serial killer," Pen shuddered, eyeing the elder man and his assorted poles with a new-found revulsion.

"Garcia, just sit down and give it a chance," Dave replied gently, watching as she seemed to literally bounce from side to side. "You might be surprised and find yourself enjoying the experience."

Stomping toward her discarded lawn chair, she glared at Dave's impassive face and pulled her chair a few feet away from him.

"I don't bite," Dave grinned as she slammed the metal-framed chair into place.

"I do," Pen smiled sweetly, dropping into the chair as she turned to stare out over the inky water, swatting at the bugs using her face as a pin cushion. "I do NOT see the attractiveness in this," she said, gesturing at the pond with derision. "You're really gonna sit out here for hours on the off chance that a fish happens onto your hook?"

"It's all about patience," Dave replied evenly, keeping his eyes on the pond in question. "And perseverance."

"Seems like a colossal waste of time to me," Pen grumbled under her breath, tapping her sneaker against the ground, mentally calculating the cost of having said sneakers cleaned after this little trek in the god-forsaken muddy wilderness.

"Haven't you ever done something for the pure pleasure of it?" Rossi asked, jiggling the rod in his hand slightly.

Raising one perfectly arched brow, she nodded once as she tucked her legs onto the chair, swiping off a clod of mud attached to one sole. "Of course I have. However, I think that your definition of pleasure and my interpretation of the word are vastly different. When I decide to enjoy myself, it doesn't involve a trek through the wilderness in the dark of night to murder poor unsuspecting innocents!"

Grinning into the darkness at the affronted tone in her voice, Rossi merely let her last comment slide as he said, "So, if this isn't your cup of tea, what is? And don't tell me it's doing that mumbo-jumbo that you do on those computer thingamabobs."

"No wonder technology hates you with a passion," Penelope retorted, gripping her iPhone tighter as she glared across at him. "How would you like it if I called your precious fish thingies by some god-awful name?"

"Names don't matter, Garcia. I think Shakespeare said that a rose by any other name would smell as sweet."

"Well, good ol' Willie boy apparently hadn't spent in time in the Virginia forest of no return," Garcia retorted, wrinkling her nose as a sudden foul odor invaded their area of the world. Pinching her nose quickly, she gasped as she demanded, "What IS that awful smell?"

Sniffing the air, Dave fought against the laugh rising in his throat as he easily spotted the newest visitor to their makeshift camp. "That would be the skunk sitting about three feet to your left," he returned evenly.

"The wh-," Penelope gasped, jerking her head to the left as the black animal with the telltale white stripe down his back eyed her indignantly. "Oh my God!" she screeched, leaping from her chair as the animal raised his tail angrily. "It's gonna eat me!" she yelped, tripping over the tackle box as she fell across Dave's lap.

"Oomphh," Dave gasped with effort, catching her weight against him and wincing as the woman tried to curl into a ball in his lap. "Not a carnivore, Garcia. The worst he'll do is spray us!"

"Tell that to Pepe Le Pew over there," Garcia screamed, waving a hand in the direction of the skunk while frantically burying her face against Dave's chest.

Dave could have sworn the animal gave him an almost sympathetic look before he scampered back into the tree line. "He's gone, Garcia. Come up for air, kid," he ordered the woman cowering against him, patting her shoulder while attempting to hold onto his fishing pole.

"Not until you agree to take me home!" Garcia growled, her reply muffled by Rossi's shirt.

"We're not going home until I'm convinced you've learned a lesson out here," Dave denied implacably.

"I have!" Penelope yelled, lifting her head to stare at Dave with flashing, slightly demented eyes, her fingers curling tightly in his once-unwrinkled shirt. "Never let a conceited profiler talk you into the woods! You'd have let that animal attack me and use my eyeballs for chew toys! I know you would have!" she accused, smacking at his chest for emphasis.

"Garcia," Dave began patiently, intending to use this as a perfect teaching moment. That was, until he felt a tug on his fishing pole. Forgetting about the woman in his lap, Dave leapt to his feet, dumping Penelope into an unceremonious heap at his feet. "I got a bite!"


	4. Chapter 4

**_Author's Note: We're excited to announce our Round 3 of our Fanfic Challenge on Chit Chat on Author's Corner forum. The ___****Dealer's Choice August Challenge**_ is a great way to stretch your writing muscles! Please see the forum for further details. We'd love to have you! And please visit the forum to read our latest interview with the simply amazing **Mingsmommy**__! And, please remember our fellow author,__** Angel N Darkness**__, who was in a serious car accident on Sunday. Visit the discussion thread to leave your best wishes. Updates on her condition will be posted there as we receive them. We've also added four new discussion threads, __**"Let's Play, "Name**__**Your Beta""**__ for those of you that want to publicly recognize and recommend your beta and __**"Chit Chat with the Authors"**__ for those that have questions related to writing and Criminal Minds fanfiction, **"The Art of the Well Written Sex Scene"** for those of us that struggle with those intimate moments in our stories and **"Let's Take a Good Thing and Make it Better"** to gather suggestions on how to make this forum even bigger and brighter. Please drop by and check it out._

**Fishin' in the Dark**

**Chapter Four**

Penelope Garcia had suffered countless indignities in her life. Bad dates, professional failures, wicked technological downfalls...not to mention dealing with her best friend's antics on a daily basis, often making her the butt of his insipid jokes.

But being dumped from David Rossi's secure lap onto the muddy ground in the middle of nowhere with wild animals scurrying about as a fifty pound behemoth of a fish came flying toward her face…now THAT had to top the list.

Okay, she might have been exaggerating the fish's size, but the rest was a hundred and ten percent true.

"Arrrghhh!" she yelped as the cold slimy scales of the largemouth bass flopped against her face. "Get that thing away from me," she yelled, batting ineffectually against the flopping amphibian hovering in front of her nose. "You dropped me!"

"Look at this beauty!" Dave enthused proudly, ignoring the technological terror's angry shouts. "This baby oughta set some kind of record," he said happily, already imagining the plaque mounted on the wall of his den.

Crawling up to her knees to stare up into the thrilled face of her colleague, a wave of pure rage consumed Garcia. "You dropped me for a freaking FISH!" she growled, slapping Rossi's stomach soundly.

"Oomph!" Dave grunted, bending at the waist and smacking Garcia's nose with the hapless fish again. "I had to!" he defended himself, waving the fish at her as she struggled back to her feet. "Check out the size of this baby," he demanded, idiotically waving the animal in her face again.

Taking a step back before the slippery creature could touch her precious skin again, Garcia's eyes widened as her sneaker faltered on the loose dirt.

"I mean, look at it, Garcia," Dave continued, taking a step toward his miserable tech. "She's perfect," he enthused, missing the panicked look in Garcia's eyes as she began her backward descent into the inky waters of the pond behind her.

"Aaarrrrrhhhhh!" Pen screamed as her body made contact with the black water in an echoing splash. "You, son of a bitch! You pushed me in!"

"I did not!" Rossi denied indignantly, cocking his head as he watched Penelope splash in the shallow water, arms flapping madly. "I never touched you!"

"Kinda my point," Garcia hissed angrily, her eyes virtually shooting sparks toward him as she swiped angrily at her cheeks. "By not so much as offering me a hand, you contributed to my fall, you Neanderthal. But the damned fish down and get me out of here!" she yelled, spitting bits of algae and pond water from her mouth as her hair soggy hair flowed around her. "Hurry up!" she demanded stridently, kicking her legs in a futile effort to regain her balance.

"Well, stop flopping around like a fish out of water. Damn, he's being quieter than you are," Rossi declared, holding up the fish again. "You're scaring the other fish!"

"I swear on my newest God of War video game, I'm going to kill you with only that fish and a fishing pole as weapons, Rossi," Penelope warned through barely moving lips.

"Somebody really needs to have a chat with you about that temper of yours," Dave muttered as he reached for the wicker basket beside his folding chair, expertly plopping the flopping fish inside.

Her already flashing eyes narrowed as she trained her sights on the hapless fisherman, his face illuminated perfectly in the glow of the lantern. "You wanna see temper, Agent Insipidio?" she demanded, slamming her hands down against the murky pond water. "Oh, I'll show you temper! I've got temper to burn!" Feeling a sudden nip against her once-pristine ankle, her eyes widened as she jumped, her yelp renting the night air, "Oh, God! That was a piranha! You've brought me here to do away with me and let Mother Nature gobble up the evidence!"

Rolling his eyes as he trudged toward the edge of the pond, Rossi shook his head as he watched the water ripple around her. "Garcia, I'm gonna stop you now before you manage to frighten what's left of the trout." Holding out a hand, he urged, "Give me your hand and let's see if we can't manage to get you onto dry land without any further casualties."

Hopping from foot to foot on the unstable pond floor as she struggled to find stable ground once again, Garcia reached out for the waiting hand. And pulled. Hard. If she was going to be bait for the man-eating sharks infesting these waters, then by God, she was going to take prisoners along for the ride.

Praising God for his foresight in digging out his boots from the oversize closet in his den, Dave slowly trudged down the pond's bank, extending his arm toward the splashing space cadet intent on launching them both into orbit at any given moment. As a profiler, he should have been able to see the coming escalation mirrored in her shining eyes. After all, he'd seen all kinds of demented visions in his thirty plus years on the job, hadn't he? Later, he'd blame it on the inky black night...but honestly, he'd simply been too amused by the other woman's antics to notice the imminent danger he was facing.

Feeling her chilled fingers wrapping around his much larger hand, Dave had still been trying to find stable footing himself when he felt the first determined tug to his arm. "Garcia, wait," he growled, feeling his rubber soled feet slipping against the silt. "I don't have my footing yet," he muttered, feeling her talons digging into his flesh. And that's when he saw it...that mischievous glint sparkling in her eyes that every member of his team had learned to be wary of.

"Gee, I wouldn't know how THAT feels, now would I?" she smiled, tugging sharply on his arm again as his solid body came tumbling toward her.

"Shit!" Dave sputtered as he crashed against her body, shaking his now wet head like a shaggy dog, grimacing as the smelly water trickled down his face. "What the hell, woman!"

"Oh, lookie, lookie," Garcia sang, "the world class profiler's all WET!" she continued, splashing him again for good measure. But her joyful water dance quickly turned into an indignant shriek as she yelled, plunging her arms into the water, "My phone! Oh, god, my phone! Gladys, where are you?" Turning her aggrieved gaze on Dave, she hissed, "Now, you're in serious danger, Agent Attitude!"

Still trying to find his footing in the rapidly cooling depths, Rossi muttered, "Now, what are you babbling about?"

"You drowned Gladys, you barbarian!" Garcia shouted at the top of her tiny, yet highly formidable lungs.


	5. Chapter 5

**_Author's Note_**_: We're excited to announce our Round 3 of our Fanfic Challenge on Chit Chat on Author's Corner forum. The **Dealer's Choice August Challenge** is a great way to stretch your writing muscles! Please see the forum for further details. We'd love to have you! And please visit the forum to read our latest interviews with the simply amazing **SussiRay and cmfanbex**! And please join our newest discussion thread, **"What's on Your Bookshelf"** where readers tell us about the published books and authors that inspire them. Please drop by and check it out. And lastly, please keep our fellow authors, **Angel N Darkness** and **Darcie91 **within your prayers. Both ladies have been in serious accidents and have separate discussion threads where readers and authors alike may leave their best wishes! That's all for this time folks! Thanks to all who have read, reviewed, favorited or alerted our stories. We continue to appreciate each one of you!_

**Fishin' in the Dark**

**Chapter Five**

Laboriously hauling himself back to unsteady feet as Garcia's angry shrieks continued to fly around him, Dave shook his head as one dark thought pervaded his jumbled thoughts.

This woman was as certifiable as any unsub he'd ever tried to apprehend...and twice as dangerous.

Really, who named their car Esther and their phone Gladys? It was apparent in her escalating diatribe that reasoning with the spitfire before him was going to be virtually impossible at the moment. The homicidal glint in her sparking eyes assured him of that. But, he thought, his heart softening as he caught the glimmer of frustrated tears in her eyes, she was HIS raving maniac. His, and the rest of their quasi family. And she was obviously hovering closer to the edge than he'd originally anticipated.

Sighing heavily as he reached down to pull the still agitatedly splashing woman out of the water, he offered her a hard glare as she threatened to pull him ass over teakettle again. "Damn it, Garcia, if you pull me down in there with you again, I'm gonna drown you with my own two hands," he warned, tightening his fingers around hers and tugging her unceremoniously to her slippery feet. Quickly wrapping a steadying arm around her waist despite her slapping hands, Rossi began to slowly wade them toward the pond's welcoming bank.

Finally reaching the muddy shore, Dave pushed Garcia gently up the steep incline before climbing up after her. "Now," he ordered, pointing determinedly toward her lawn chair, "sit down."

Obeying automatically, Garcia dropped heavily into her chair, crossing her arms defiantly over her chest as Dave glowered at her. "Don't look at me like that," she said tartly, settling her wet, squishy body deeper into the canvas chair. "This is all your fault, anyway. I didn't even want to come out here tonight," she added, pointing an accusing wet finger at him as she complained loudly. "But somebody just HAD to pull rank and insist that my presence in this Godforsaken wasteland was mandatory!" she finished on a yell, swinging out a hand to gesture wildly around her.

Groaning impatiently as he listened to her snap at him again, Dave ran restless hands through his hair. "Woman, what in the HELL is your beef with nature? Nobody has this much negativity regarding the Great Outdoors without a hell of a reason."

"None of your beeswax, Agent Nosy Pants," Garcia replied, busy squeezing the excess water from her long red ringlets as she studiously avoided his beady gaze.

"Not my business?" Rossi retorted, moving toward her with plopping shoes. "Did you miss the part where you just attempted to drown me?" he said, pointing toward the inky pond.

"If I'd really been trying, you'd be fish fodder right now," Penelope said absently, toeing off her sneakers and stripping her colorful neon green socks off and wringing them out. "And I'm sure that Shamu the Whale is just waiting underneath all that icky algae to gobble you up in one big ol' bite, Mr. Snippy!"

"Be that as it may, I'm prepared to return the favor and throw you back in if you aren't forthcoming with some answers in short order, Penelope," Rossi threatened, raising an eyebrow and silently daring her to argue.

"Why does it matter to you so much?" Garcia asked suspiciously, glancing up at him as she re-tied her sneakers.

"Because, Kitten, you aren't you these days. I know you're having a hard time dealing with what you saw in Alaska. We all do. And it's time we did something about it," Dave said, reaching out to grasp his own chair, dragging it beside hers.

"Alaska was hard on me for more than just the obvious reasons," Pen mumbled, her fingers worrying a torn hole on her jeans where one of the rocks had snagged the material during her foray into the pond. "Can't a girl just have a day without the entire world wanting a freaking update?"

"Garcia," Dave urged softly, watching closely as the faint lamplight illuminated her set face, "I know I'm not Derek, but you CAN talk to me. I won't bite."

"That's not what I here, Romeo," Penelope replied immediately with a glimmer of her old pep. If the man was intent on prying into her life, she could find a way to turn the proverbial tables right on top of his stubborn head, couldn't she?

Barking out a small laugh, Rossi amended with a nod of his head, "Fine. I won't bite YOU."

"Well, now I feel a little offended," she teased, batting her long colorful eyelashes in his direction. Anything to throw this intuitive man off her scent, she thought desperately.

"Garcia," Dave warned, tossing her a stern look as he barely resisted wringing her pretty little neck. "Talk. Now. Or, prepare to go swimming again. Your choice."

"Do you realize that you're the only one on our team that's not afraid to boss me around?" Garcia asked curiously as she cocked her head, her damp hair sticking to her cheek. "You don't believe my all-knowing, all-seeing are capable of landing a house on your wicked body if I want? Just try me, buster. I've got skills you've never even imagined yet."

"Garcia, I've come to the conclusion that there's nothing you can do to me that one of three ex-wives hasn't tried before," Dave shrugged, ignoring the obvious bluster in her voice. "I'm bulletproof. And you're stalling," Dave commented calmly, picking up his fishing rod again. "Talk."

"Nobody's bulletproof," Penelope grunted, grudgingly reaching for her own pole as he passed it to her. "I just need to find the soft underbelly of the beast," she muttered, casting her line efficiently, which surprised her as much as it did him.

Watching her sinker bobble in the distance over the water, Rossi nodded approvingly. "Nice," he complimented her. "And incidentally, there is no soft underbelly. It's rawhide after all these years. And you still aren't telling me what I wanna know," he said, his easy words allowing her to know he wouldn't be distracted.

"My God," Penelope said, her eyes flashing with irritation as she pulled them away from her line, "you just don't give up, do you?"

"Did I give up when you got shot?" Dave asked grimly without looking at her as he pulled on his line to relieve the slack.

"That was different," Penelope frowned, refusing to allow her mind to sink back into those dark days. "My life isn't in danger here, Agent Smartypants."

"No, but mine is...you in a mood is a dangerous thing to my health, Kitten. To the entire team's health. Now, c'mon, Penelope. Tell me what it was about Alaska and about our surroundings right now that's done such a number on you," Dave urged gently, settling back into his chair as he prepared to wait out the objections she was certain to throw in his direction.

"You wouldn't understand, Agent Rossi," Penelope replied in a voice so lost and sad it momentarily stunned Dave into silence.

"You won't know that, sweetheart, until you lay it on me. I've got broad shoulders, Pen. You can borrow one if you need to," Dave offered quietly, his voice kind and steady.

Her resolve to keep her problems private and held close the vest seemed to be suddenly weakening as Penelope glanced toward Rossi. His angular face was serene in the moonlight, no judgment at all in his gaze when he looked at her.

"You're going to think it's dumb," Pen muttered uncomfortably, swallowing hard as she fought the rising panic in her chest again.

"Then you don't know me very much at all, Penelope," Dave returned evenly. "Because the one thing no man worth his salt would do is think you were dumb. Now, relax and start talking."

And in a hushed voice, that's exactly what Penelope Garcia began to do.


	6. Chapter 6

**_Author's Note__: We're excited to announce our Round 3 of our Fanfic Challenge on "Chit Chat on Author's Corner" forum is up to 62 participants. And you still have three more days to sign up if interested. We'd love to have everyone, whether you've authored hundreds of stories or never written a thing! This is for everyone! The Dealer's Choice August Challenge is a great way to stretch your writing muscles! Please see the forum for further details. And if you've never visited the forum, drop by for a visit. Everyone interested in Criminal Minds fanfiction and/or writing is welcome. We'd love to have you! As always, we want to take a moment and say thanks to all who have read, reviewed, favorited or alerted our stories. We continue to appreciate each one of you!_**

**Fishin' in the Dark**

**Chapter Six**

Her voice was low and tight, the words literally forced through her pursed lips.

"When I was only eight years old," Penelope Garcia began slowly, the words coming hesitant on an unsure tongue as she fought the memories of her past, "My parents decided it was high time that our little family started exploring the great wide world that was outside of the boundaries of LaLaLand. My step-father declared he wanted to breathe clear, clean air for at least one week out of the fifty-two. Said it wasn't natural to be exposed to smog and pollution on a regular basis, and that his little girl needed to see the miracles of the world."

"Sounds like a smart man," Rossi commented softly, neutrally, not wanting to interrupt her train of thought now that she had actually began to slowly reveal the true nature of her distress.

Nodding once, Penelope focused her waving gaze on the edge of the inky pond, a faint plopping on the edge of the water interrupting the almost silent moment. Swallowing hard, she watched as Rossi shifted his fishing pole a bare inch to the left, the line sliding gracefully in the glow of the lamp. Dropping her gaze to her clenched hands, she whispered, "He was a very smart man. And he loved me very much. He was everything I would have wanted in a father."

Seeing Rossi's slow nod in the moonlight, Penelope smiled sadly. "My parents were throwbacks. Some called them hippies...other's called them free spirits. I just called them Mom and Dad."

"Sounds like that probably lends to a well-rounded childhood," Dave commented, no judgment in his tone. Personally, he thought that explained a lot. People didn't usually come as completely open and honest as Penelope Garcia. An alternative style of adolescence would explain a lot that psychology would miss.

"It was," Penelope replied wistfully as she stared into the black night. Images of running through fields of wildflowers and picnics in the wilderness teased her memory. Shaking it off, she continued, "At any rate, the summer before I began my senior year of high school, I came home to find Mom and Dad packing up Spanky." She laughed lightly as she heard Dave's groan. "Yep, I come by my penchant for naming inanimate objects honestly. Spanky was what dad had dubbed our old RV."

"You are making so much sense to me right about now," Dave chuckled, tugging his fishing line slightly.

"Am I?" Penelope asked rhetorically. "Anyway, when I got home and found mom carrying our bedding to the RV, they informed me that we were going to have one last field trip into nature before I left home." Pausing as she remembered her mom's enthusiastic smile and the bear hug her father had given her, she collected herself. "I was less than thrilled. My final summer before I had to be a grown up and the 'rents were dragging me off into God's country."

"Typical teenage reaction," Dave said encouragingly, a faint smile playing on his lips as he remembered his own nieces and nephews.

"I guess," Pen shrugged. "I whined and bitched for the half hour it took to finish getting ready...all to no avail, of course."

"Of course," Dave nodded supportively.

"Anyway, by the end, I was packed into the RV and on my way to the Alaskan wilds. And I've got to admit, it was beautiful. Seeing the Northern Lights for the first time...there aren't any words to describe it. And seeing the snowcapped mountain ranges...let's just say it was inspiring. I was honestly glad by the end of the first week that my father had hustled me on Spanky. Everything was perfect..."

"Until," Dave prompted gently, heart sinking as he realized that there wasn't a happy ending here.

Ignoring him, Pen shook her head, involuntarily shivering in spite of the balmy night air. Licking her lips, she whispered, "It was our next to last day there and we were driving out of one of the wildlife preserves. My mom had wanted to get some pictures for her scrapbook. It was dusk and Dad had just pulled Spanky out on the main highway. It was a blind curve. I remember him grumbling about it on the drive into the park. I'd fallen asleep in the back. They never saw the pickup coming. The cops told me later that my dad swerved to prevent hitting the other driver head-on. He took the tree instead."

"Jesus, Garcia," Dave breathed, horrified, her broken tone touching him as deeply as the story itself.

"Yeah," Garcia sighed shakily, her breath catching tightly as she tried to relieve the tightness in her chest. "My mom didn't suffer, she was impaled by a branch from the tree and died instantly. But, my dad...he was still conscious. I was just stunned. I still remember the other driver, outside the RV, yelling drunkenly at the "crazy fucking hippies" and my dad...he was in so much pain, but he told me to ignore him. To ignore that man. He didn't last long. I think he passed away five minutes or so before the paramedics showed up." Pressing her fingers tightly to the canvas arm of her folding chair, she whispered, "But… I hadn't been anywhere close to nature since that night...Alaskan or otherwise...not until that case."

"Penelope," Dave murmured, reaching out to grip the tech's hand in his, wrapping his fingers tightly. "It wasn't your fault. It wasn't nature's fault. It was the act of a selfish idiot that had too much to drink and decided it would be a good idea to get behind the wheel of a car. As much as it sounds like your parents loved the outdoors, it's a shame to deprive yourself of something that made them so happy, isn't it?"

"I suppose so," Penelope admitted slowly, her words whispering softly. "It just seemed easier to avoid it that force myself into facing it. I guess that's where you come in, huh?" she asked, lifting her lips into a rueful half-smile.

"I had no idea it was anything like this, Garcia. If I had..." Dave trailed off guiltily, mentally kicking himself in the proverbial ass for once again barreling ahead without considering the consequences.

"You'd still have done the exact same thing, wouldn't you, Adolph?" Penelope asked with a watery laugh, pressing a finger to the corner of her eye, attempting to stall the tears threatening to fall.

"Probably," Dave admitted with a tilt of his head. "Though, I would have shown a little more finesse," he added gently, letting out a soft sigh.

"And not tried to drown me?" Pen quipped.

"You gave as good as you got," Dave grunted, fingering his soaked jeans.

"I usually do," Penelope said sweetly, squeezing his fingers, taking a moment to just enjoy the human contact and support that had been completely unexpected.

"I think we can both agree to that," Dave declared amenably. Offering her a sidelong glance, his eyes catching the slightly more relaxed expression on her face, he murmured, "Do you feel better?"

"Actually, yeah," Penelope confessed, not quite believing it herself, the words surprising her as much as him. "I do."

"Then my purpose was served," Dave nodded with a satisfied smile. "And, now, grasshopper, we come to the end of the lesson."

"My lesson," Penelope corrected, straightening her shoulders as she pressed her water-logged shoe against the ground. "We haven't started on yours yet, Agent Know-It-All."

"My lesson?" Rossi smirked, arching his dark brows. "Kitten, I don't think there's anything left that can be taught to me."

"Au contraire, mon ami," Penelope laughed, wagging her finger in the air as she felt another slight tell-tale tug on her fishing pole. "Evidently, I need to show you how the big one gets reeled in," she grinned as her line jerked wildly in the water, knocking his still pole to the side.

And that's how they ended their night. Two friends...fishin' in the dark.

_**finis**_


End file.
